Year 11 News - 28th October 2016

As ever, the last two weeks have been busy and productive for Year 11. After the relaxation of Golden Week, it was time to settle down to some serious work in preparation for their IGCSEs, and all the students have been putting in plenty of effort. Students have used skittles in Biology lessons to help develop their understanding of the process of natural selection, as well as studying electromagnetism in Physics. In English lessons, studies of the poetry anthology ‘Songs of Ourselves’ have continued, and Mrs Whiteson’s class successfully used the rules of the villanelle form to construct their own version of Elizabeth Bishop’s poem ‘One Art’. Mr Guiney’s History class have been studying Stalinism and have used games such as Trivial Pursuit in order to consolidate their knowledge. Meanwhile, in DT students have been working on their portfolios and constructing functional models of their final pieces.

STEAM Day and the Big Draw

As I write this, the whole school is engaged in the exciting project which is STEAM Day and the Big Draw. This is a cross-curricular project which enables students to work collaboratively while developing their skills in the area of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths). The Year 11s are developing their critical thinking skills through a Theory of Knowledge session based around the three statements ‘I see, I think, I wonder’ and later will be participating in the Big Draw, working collaboratively to produce large ink drawings on canvases that will go up around the school. This is a very exciting event which is ideal for the Year 11s as they approach IB; the IB Diploma demands higher-order skills such as collaboration and thinking ‘outside the box’, both of which are being developed today. I have attached some pictures of the Year 11s at work for you to look at.

Project Week

I am very excited to say that Project Week is almost upon us! It will be an early start for all year groups, and Year 11 are no exception: we are meeting at school at 5.15am on Monday. We will then be taking a three and a half hour flight to Chengdu, and exploring the ancient city on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday and Wednesday students will have the immense privilege of working with the pandas at Dujiangyan Panda Base, baking ‘panda cake’ for them to eat, cleaning out their cages, feeding the pandas and ensuring their wellbeing whilst learning about the challenges of caring for this majestic species. Students will enjoy a Kung Fu lesson on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday is an exciting day of hiking up the incredible Mount Qingcheng and taking a cable car journey amidst breathtaking scenery. Then on Friday students will take a boat trip to visit the awe-inspiring Leshan Buddha, before returning to Chengdu for their flight home. Pick-up time at school is 10pm on Friday evening. I am sure you will agree this is an amazing itinerary and I am sure the students will make some wonderful memories.

Please ensure that you let me know if you would like to drop off or pick up your son or daughter to or from Pudong Airport rather than school. If you choose this option, they need to be dropped at the airport at 6am on Monday and picked up at 8pm on Friday.

Dates for your Diary

Monday 31st October – Friday 4th November – Project Week

Saturday 5th November – Bonfire Night celebration

Friday 11th November and Monday 14th November – School closed due to staff training